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Introduction Astrology, the effort to relate occurrences on Earth and in our lives to the move- ments of the sky and celestial bodies, is one of humanity’s oldest known intellec- tual quests. The earliest evidence of astrology comes from Mesopotamia in the late third millennium BCE, and the Mesopotamian tradition is at the origin of Western and probably of Indian astrology. Mesopotamian astrologers traced the correlation of celestial phenomena like solar and lunar eclipses with public events including natural disasters and changes in the royal houses that ruled the land. Late in its history, Mesopotamian astrology made the crucial step of inquiring after the fates of private individuals as well as kings and kingdoms. The first surviving “natal” horoscope, recounting the condition of the skies at the time of birth, comes from the Mesopotamian tradition and dates from the late fifth century BCE. The Babylo- nians or “Chaldeans” of Mesopotamia were particularly identified with astrological knowledge among peoples as distinct as the Greeks, Jews, and Romans. Astrology in the Greco-Roman World The fourth-century BCE conquests of Alexander the Great in the Middle East exposed Greek thinkers to Mesopotamian and Middle Eastern culture, including astrology, and ushered in the Hellenistic period. In adapting Mesopotamian astrol- ogy to their own culture, the Greeks took a more cosmological approach, empha- sizing how the planets moved through the sky rather than just their positions at particular moments. The Hellenistic city of Alexandria in Egypt, home of the famous library, became the new center of astrology where Mesopotamian, Greek, and Egyptian traditions were synthesized. The new Hellenistic astrology was also introduced into India, where it helped establish the rich tradition of Indian astrol- ogy. However, Indian astrology, which flourishes to this day, developed in a fun- damentally different way, with a sidereal zodiac based on the stars rather than a tropical one based on the sun’s rising and with far more emphasis given to the rising and descending lunar nodes. Astrology arrived in Rome along with other aspects of Greek culture. The Roman ruling elite condemned it at first, associating it with popular superstition and forms of divination unauthorized by the state. Following the first-century BCE Roman conquest of the Hellenistic eastern Mediterranean, elite Romans became more interested in astrology. The earliest known Roman astrologers are found in this period. Astrology became particularly prominent in the Roman Empire, as the first Emperor Augustus Caesar (r. 27 BCE–14 CE) employed it in his propaganda.